Austria's Alessandro Hämmerle won the first Snowboard Cross World Cup event of the season at Secret Garden ©Getty Images

Montafon is to host second men's and women's events of the International Ski Federation's (FIS) Snowboard Cross World Cup season, with the mixed team competition to also feature for the first time on the 2021-2022 circuit.

Home favourite Alessandro Hämmerle has won the las three overall men's FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup titles, and returns to Austria having got his campaign off to a strong start with victory at the season's opener at Zhangjiakou's Secret Garden resort, a venue which will be used for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Italy's Omar Visintin finished second in China, while the United States' Nick Baumgartner came third.

In the women's Snowboard Cross World Cup, last year's winner also picked up where she left off as Sochi 2014 Olympic champion and Pyeongchang 2018 bronze medallist Eva Samková of the Czech Republic triumphed at Secret Garden.

The Czech former Olympic champion Eva Samková triumphed in the women's event at Secret Garden last month ©Getty Images
The Czech former Olympic champion Eva Samková triumphed in the women's event at Secret Garden last month ©Getty Images

Britain's world champion Charlotte Bankes and reigning Olympic champion Michela Moioli of Italy completed a star-studded podium.

The snowboard cross team competition has been added to the Olympic programme for the first time at Beijing 2022, and Montafon is set to represent the discipline's only World Cup event before the start of the Games on February 4.

Ausralia's Jarryd Hughes and Belle Brockhoff are the current world champions.

Men's and women's qualifying is scheduled for tomorrow, with the World Cups taking place the following day.

The mixed team event is due to take place on Saturday (December 11).

A total of seven further events are planned on this season's Snowboard Cross World Cup circuit after Montafon.